Tuesday, February 27, 2018

2018.02.27 Hopewell @Home ▫ Psalm 99

Questions for Littles: Who reigns (v1)? Who should tremble? Where does the Lord dwell? What should be shaken/moved? Where, especially, is the Lord seen to be great (v2)? High above whom is the Lord (v2b)? What great and awesome thing should the peoples praise (v3)? What loves justice (v4a)? What has He established and executed? Where? Whose God does v5 command to exalt? Where should we worship Him (v5b)? Why (v5c)? What three men have been among the Lord’s priests (v6)? What did they do? How did the Lord respond? How has God spoken to Jacob (v7)? Who was God to them (v8)? What should we do with the Lord our God (v9)? Where? Why? 
This week’s Call to Worship and Invocation came from Psalm 99, in order to sing God’s thoughts after Him with Rejoice, the Lord Is King!

There are many reasons in this Psalm to rejoice that it is indeed Yahweh who is King. The repeated refrain is that He is holy. Yahweh alone is God, there is no other. He alone is Creator. Everyone and everything else is just a creature.

But what are some of the ways that God displays this earth-shaking (v1) holiness?

One is by choosing a particular people for Himself. The Lord calls is people Zion in v2, and there is something very precious about being able to call Him “our” God… it shouts out our covenant relationship wherein He is our God, and we are His specially chosen people.

Why did He choose us? Certainly not for any good in us! v4 is really quite astonishing. The Lord has established and executed equity, justice, and righteousness in Jacob. Jacob? Really? His name had been changed to “Israel,” but the Lord keeps using the name that means “Heel [grabber]”—i.e. supplanter, deceiver, con artist, shyster. The Lord certainly has not chosen us because of any good in us!!

Why, then, has He chosen us? The answer is in another name, this time in v8. The Lord answers Moses, Aaron, Samuel, indeed any or all of His people, in order to make Himself known as “God-Who-Forgives.” What a blessed name!

When you see the filthiness of your sin, and groan under the weight of the fact that you continue to commit it, let this be a healing balm to your soul: the Lord knew this is what it would be like; He chose to love you, because He loves to love you; He loves to announce and display that He is “God-Who-Forgives.”

This is the great subject of the worship “between the cherubim” (v1), “in Zion (v2), “at His footstool” (v5), and “at His holy hill” (v9). Each of these is a reference to corporate worship.

When we understand His love for His people, and His display of Himself in relationship with His people, we are no longer satisfied merely with individual worship. Each week, we are eager for the Lord’s Day gatherings, and our whole lives long we are eager to join that great congregation in glory!
When have you most needed to call upon “God-Who-Forgives”?
Suggested songs: ARP99A “Let the Nations Tremble” or HB11 “Holy, Holy, Holy!”

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